


The Land of the Fairy Tales

by wingardiumleviosaaa



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, F/M, Love Triangles, M/M, maurauders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-26
Updated: 2014-03-26
Packaged: 2018-01-17 02:39:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1370869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingardiumleviosaaa/pseuds/wingardiumleviosaaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death. A cold and sinister place in our minds, a place to fear and to fight until your very last breath before giving in and going there. Yet different theories exist about where you go after dying. Valhalla, Heaven, 72 virgins, we know them all. However James Potter's love Maddie Aston has a very new one; The Land of the Fairy Tales. But how can one go to such a mystical place when you're fighting with your best friend? How can you leave for a perfect world, without forgiveness?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Broken

There was a deafening silence that ran through the crowds as they stood opposing each other, glaring like they had never glared before. There was the redhead with her deep emerald colored eyes that sparkled fiercely, and people knew that she was currently on the brink of doing anything. Opposing her was a dark-haired girl, with a pale skin and dark eyes, in whose depths you simply drowned, but now they were just hard and cold. Unforgiving. The energy in the air between them was electric, sizzling between the two girls who seemed to be wanting to rip the other to shreds in less than two seconds, unless someone stopped them. 

But nobody did.

Because this were Natalie Montgomery and Madeleine Aston. Their friendship was about as explosive as kerosine was inflammable, with two girls with such different, yet strong personalities. Madeleine was outspoken, sociable in every way and basically a light that shone upon Hogwarts whenever she smiled. Athletic, part of the Quidditch team, intelligent in such ways that it was hardly fair, and confident. Maddie, as she was called by friends, was that girl who would always have your back when you needed her to, who loved with a fierce passion that burned as bright as the fire that her red hair resembled. And then, there was her polar opposite, Natalie. Nat was honest, brutally sometimes, that girl who always tended to intimidate those who did not have the amount of confidence she had. A loner at heart, one who loved to delve herself into books, but by no means shy. Natalie just preferred the company of a few rather than a big amount of fake friends. 

Now Nat and Maddie have been best friends for years. They met when they were in diapers and have been friends ever since, the closest. But once every month or two, they'd end up in this big, explosive fight over something stupid, simply because they were so different and felt like ripping each other's throats out at times. The next day they would be able to laugh about it and all would be forgotten, like it had never even happened. It was routine, and the students at Hogwarts were more than used to it, now that the two girls were nearing the end of their sixth year. Things blew up around here, and it was always a fight between Natalie and Madeleine. It would be over before you knew it was even happening.

Yet somehow it seemed different this time. Never before had there been such a raw tension between the two, or had the negative and aggressive energy been as high as now. They looked like they were about to kill each other, raw and carnal, thirsting for the blood of the other. It was terrifying really, and if the professors would take a notice of it, this would end before it could even start. Some students that surrounded the two were chanting, eerie chants that filled the air and poisoned minds, until in the end the entire circle around them followed. _Fight, fight, fight.._ Maddie's head was spinning, hurting from the blows that she had taken, the knives stabbed in her back. Meanwhile Natalie felt the same, about the way Maddie had betrayed her. They had always been honest with each other, they had always had each other's backs. But she guessed all of that was over now.

_Fight, fight, fight, fight.._

Those words were driving them crazy, pushing them past a breaking point that would either way explode like a volcano that roused from it's slumber, or it would end in tears of agony, of pain and insufferable fear of how to deal with life without that one person who knew you no matter what. But in the end it was Natalie who choose to break the silence, and destroy a lot more things in the process.

**"Don't you ever try to talk to me again. Ever. It's done, Maddie. Have a nice life."**

***

**MADDIE'S POV**

That day something broke that was seemingly unable to be fixed. A display of the seven deathly sins, equally divided between the both of us. There was the lust that lead Natalie to her treacherous act, and maybe her envy of that what I had, of that what I had always gotten. Then again, that was a result of my greed, of my gluttony in which I wanted all, and was not willing to share. And of course, out of wrath it was that I did what I did, simply out of spite. Simply because I wanted to hurt her. After that it was her pride that got in the way of forgiving me. And also my sloth, my inability to properly try and make it up to her, until it was too late.

My name is Maddie Aston. I'm currently 18 years old and being in my final year at Hogwarts, I believe there are only about two months left, and the spring this year is lovely. I study hard, I'm on the Quidditch team -or well, I used to be- and I am deeply, madly in love with James Potter. But despite my optimism and my will to live, my body is not fully cooperating. My life, my faith is not cooperating at all. I have cancer, for the second time. But this time, I won't survive it. I can feel it in every bone of my body, my mind knows it. And yet, I can't stop fighting, until the moment is there. Because at some point I will have to face that I'm really dying, and there is nothing I can do about it.

I believe in the Land of Fairy Tales. I believe that after you die, if your life has been fruitful enough, you will go up there, to the paradise, and become a fairytale yourself. After all, they have to come from somewhere, right? In that land, there is no more pain, no more sickness and no more nasty diseases that eat you up from the inside out. All there is, is love and trust, friends and family and those we love. Maybe not immediately, but we all know that one day we'll be united, because they were part of our story after all. And you can label me as a delusional child, making up a story for herself to hide her fear of death itself. Of the connotation it holds with darkness, sadness, the big nothing. But all of that is a lie. I believe in the shining light. I believe in the happily ever after. 

There is just one more thing that I need to fix before I go. One more thing, to prove that I am worthy. That I deserve that paradise. Because how can you go to something so good, when your best friend in the whole world has not spoken to you for over a year? How can you die in peace, knowing there is no forgiveness and you will not have another chance to get it? So I've got to try. I should have so long ago, and I never did, always believing it would end up like usual. But of course it never did, and the gap between us became wider, and wider, until it seemed unable to cross it, with no matter the size of the bridge. Natalie. Her forgiveness is all I need.

My name is Madeleine Aston. And this is _my_ fairy tale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: hello people, here we are! I promise I'm going to finish this fic this time, it's my new goal in life because I'm pathetic like that xD
> 
> Anyhow, short chapter here serving mainly as an introduction to the story, set in the Harry Potter world, during the Maurauders Era, because God, I love young Sirius, Remus, James and all <3
> 
> I hope you have will stick with me, and leave me comments, since I can always use tips!
> 
> xoxo Mascha


	2. Back in Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're going back to the beginning, year six, to see what exactly happened between Montgomery and Aston. Before the cancer, before the fight. Before all went wrong.

When winter came it always seemed like the wold got wrapped in a grey and white, before the snow and the contrast between light and dark became truly visible. Grey skies, grey sweaters and jackets to guard yourself against the cold, grey surroundings as the trees began to shed their leaves and the world surrounding us became dark, gloomy, a stark contradiction with the sun that we liked to indulge ourselves in during the summer. Yes.. the summer. When people wore short clothes and wanted to soak up the sun on their golden skins as much as they possibly could. When smiles adorned people’s faces because how could one not be happy, when the skies smiled right back at you and made you feel warm and fulfilled? Sometimes she wished that summer would be when winter was now, that she could enjoy it while being at school, rather than at home. Natalie had never truly liked her home, where people were always screaming, something was always up, and in a house with six children, there was just simply never any quiet, there was never any money. Besides, she was the freak, the outcast, the only one of the who was able to do magic. It was a simmering hell that boiled her blood and wanted her to scream, only scream for those two long months in which the doors of Hogwarts were closed. When there was no laughter, no Charms, no making out with handsome guys in broom closets. Two long months in which all she could do, was succumb to her parents yells and swears, telling her that she was nothing, a nobody, when in fact she knew that it was only out of jealousy that her folks and siblings kept on harassing her. Natalie was strong, but during those months, it became increasingly harder to swallow.

Those two long months in which she’d be separated from the only person who could give her any relief.

Madeleine Aston had been her best friend for years, for forever, actually. They were both born in Dalkey, a small town in Ireland, though in very much different neighbourhoods. Maddie’s parents were quite rich, living in a far more well-off part of the city, whereas Natalie herself lived in the poorest region in town. Their mothers had vaguely known each other from school and when they turned out to be pregnant around the same time, they figured it would be fun for their children to have someone to play with, since in Maddie’s neighbourhood there weren't many small children. And there poor and rich were united, as the children grew up with each other, being from such different environments with different personalities that fights were always there, but somehow it never mattered. They had been each other's lifeline in rough worlds with obligations, albeit very different ones, that remained suffocating throughout their childhood and teen years. Even after explosive fights, whenever shit hit the fan, whether it was Natalie's father's excessive drinking problem or when Maddie felt like she was suffocating after the death of her parents, they'd be there for each other. They looked out for each other whenever things got tough, and that was indeed what had formed their bond over the years, and what had made it unbreakable, at least for what Natalie believed now. When someone met Madeleine Aston is was like they had been blinded by the sun for a moment. If Hogwarts had had cheerleaders, that's what she'd have been, except them without the nasty mean strike. Because whilst Maddie was still fierce, as feisty as her sparkling emerald eyes would suggest, she was jubilant and always enthusiastic for anything. One word to describe Maddie.. that would be a hard one, but the one that made sense most was probably _vibrant_. She was always full of life and knew all the fun games to do, or how to get people to play with them even though Natalie's exterior often intimidated them. Somehow her best friend had always been able to look past Nat's dark aura, and had seen what was actually underneath there. And that those defense walls were only because her life had not been easy at home. It was why Natalie loved Madeleine more than she could ever explain, more than boyfriends or sex, literally anything. She was her pillar, the one shoulder she could always cry on, a beacon in the cold. And since they only lived a couple blocks away from each other, she was also always available.

But then Maddie had gotten seriously ill. Ill in ways that even magic had no cure for, if one's fate were unlucky enough. It was then that The girl's grandparents had made the decision to move to London to be able to be closer to her, while she was battling her disease that was slowly eating her up from the inside out, and Natalie would continue to have to spend her summers alone, all by herself, without Madeleine to depend on and lean on. They would write long letters, and Natalie could always judge from the other girl's handwriting how her mood had been. Sometimes there had been tears on the parchment from the pain she had had during her treatments, and Natalie had tried not to think about her best friend lying there in that bed, slowly but steadily withering away. It was a view that she simply couldn't bear. Luckily fifteen year old Maddie survived her cancer, and slowly got her spark back, and ever since then the reunion at Hogwarts had always been full of hugs and love, because they had missed each other so nothing could possibly break them. If only they had known there would be a boy who could.

***

_Sixth year, October_

**Natalie's POV**

There was a constant buzz in her ear, one that refused to go away and continued to haunt her mind with it's distracting sound. Natalie swatted her hand besides her ear, thinking or hoping to be able to slap the fly away, but it just would not do, and it drove her crazy. In her other ear there was the constant flow of words that Maddie seemed to spin out of her mouth, about seemingly nothing though she believed that to be different. Tuning in again slightly to be able to nod understandingly and let out some approving hums to show she utterly agreed with her, Nat continued to question what the hell she was talking about this time. Because that was her best friend too, she could make a problem out of _anything_ , and her temper was really short-lived, fiery. Explosion were no more than normal, and it was something that you gradually got used to, as the other students had gotten used to the -sometimes rather violent- fights that occurred between Madeleine and her best friend whenever they seemed to disagree. They never lasted long, and when it was all over things would be back to normal in no time, so none of it seemed to really matter.

Apparently this time it was about the fact that Berthy Johnson had been seen flirting with James Potter, and Maddie had developed a temporary crush on Mr. Potter. None of those really lasted a long time, and the girl's relationships tended to have a short lifespan, but at least she had relationships. It was a known fact that the main reason girls were not fond of Natalie Montgomery, was because she slept around a lot and did not care for relationships. Her first boyfriend had broken her heart in a million pieces and after that, she had simply not wanted the investment anymore. To many she seemed cold and distant, which added a hot mystery factor for the boys, and all girls of Hogwarts were afraid that their lovers would leave them for Natalie, and thus their general attitude towards the dark-haired beauty was hostile. Of course Natalie's attitude regarding them was not much better, but Maddie always claimed she was simply misunderstood. Natalie liked no nonsense, no bullshit and she'd call you out on any shit you talked, which girls tended to do a lot. She was more one of the guys, but then with the occasional benefits. Girls were threatened by her, as Maddie always seemed to state, yet somehow the girl herself had never really had any difficulty with any of that. Then again, her friend was so fearless it sometimes nearly gave Nat a heart attack, but at the same time she was grateful for what she had. 

**"Nat. Nat, are you even listening?"**

But Natalie wasn't listening, as a group of young men came walking onto the Grounds, passing the blanket where they were sitting. There was just something about those dark-grey eyes, and the way that jet-black hair fell messy around his well-shaped and handsome face. He had something that appeared to her like the muggle rockstars she was a fan of, something wild, something that couldn't be tamed, and damn she had fallen for it hard. Their eyes met for a semi-second, but a pang shot through her heart as soon after the eyes turned to Maddie, the way they usually did. Maddie was bubbly, Maddie was a real girl, without as much drama and high maintenance. Maddie simply _lived_. But the group of boys did not stop, they simply winked at her friend, before strolling on to another group of girls, who had apparently stolen their attention for today. **"Earth to Nat! Mancandy will scare away if you keep staring after him like a lost puppy."** Her friend chimed, and Natalie merely gave her a playful shove, not wanting to hear anything about it, forcing to keep her blush away as her best friend seemed to tease her with the only thing that she could actually be teased about.

Sirius fucking Black. He was the one guy that had always given Natalie weak knees, but he was also the guy that she knew she should stay away from, she knew it better than anything in the world. Was it possible to stay in love with the one guy who had broken you into tiny pieces? Even though currently the sight of him merely gave her tiny stabs in her heart, once not too long ago even a slight glimpse of him had made her want to crumble to the floor and cry. People had always warned her to simply not fall in love with that guy. He was a player, he used girls for his own good and then dumped them again, she had known all the stories when she first had a real conversation with him. But he had seemed so different, nearly as if she was special, as if things had been different between them. The words he said, she had actually thought he had meant all of them. But she had been a stupid fool. And still the images were dancing in front of her eyes, hearing the echoes of his soft, husky voice in her ear whenever she saw him.

_Their bodies were tangled in a big mess of limbs and bed sheets, curled up together like pretzels on a hot day. Natalie felt like every inch, every pore of her breathed out Sirius, as if he had covered every corner of her body and planted his flag there, claiming her as his own. His strong, muscular arms were wrapped around her like castle walls, telling her that she'd be safe here, no matter what she needed to be protected from. Her body was sizzling, heated up by passion and the way skin rubbed against the skin of another, nothing in between. She could still feel the patterns that his hands had trailed over her bare skin, and how she had opened for him, blossoming like a flower underneath his touch. It had been her first time, and she had given it to Sirius Black. Not once had she imagined that it would go that way. Especially not at the age of fifteen._

_**"What is on your mind right now? Regrets?"** It was his voice, the soft whisper that vibrated through her ear, feeling his soft lips brushing over her earlobe that actually sent a shiver running through her body, as her fingers found their own way, tracing intricate patterns over his bare chest. She rolled on her back with a contented sigh, and closed her eyes just to regenerate the moment for herself, as if she just had not wanted it to be over yet, but shook her head at his question when it came to regrets. **"No, not regrets. I'm just trying to decipher whether this actually happened, or it's just me dreaming."** The girl said with a chuckle, before rolling back on her side to face him, closing her eyes again as his rough hand ran across her smooth skin, brushing through her dark hair. But as her eyes fell upon his face, all she saw was the mischievous boy-ish smirk that had began to crawl up his lips, and already before his mouth opened and he crawled back on top of her, Natalie knew exactly what Sirius was about to say. **"Want me to do it again, just to be certain?"** _

_She laughed, the way only young girls could laugh, that tinkling laugh that made you think of a waterfall and a sunny beach with clear blue skies, her hands already crawling up his back again as she looked up at him with that youthful, vibrant smile. She did not even need to reply, her smile and the way their lips collided again, first gently and soft, but then growing into more heated, passionate, as if they were trying to completely indulge each other, it was simply enough. No more words were spoken, they were no longer needed. Except those three words that she had heard once, and only once, and that would continue to haunt her, even long after they ceased to be together._

_**"I love you, Natalie."**_

And she had believed him. Her smile had widened at the thought that the great Sirius Orion Black, casanova 2.0 could have truly loved her. He made it seem as if it was a possibility, as if even she -stone cold, distant Natalie who refused relationships- could be tamed and be committed to someone. Not once had it felt as if he had wanted to prove something, or that he was doing it for any other reason than his love for her. **"Nat, really. You should get over him. He was an asshole, he's not worth it."** Maddie said with a little sympathy in her voice as she caught Natalie staring at her kryptonite once again. She was the only one who knew what exactly had happened that had caused the fall out between Sirius and Natalie, a break up that everybody had seen coming except Nat herself. **"I _am_ over him."** The dark-haired girl snapped, more out of frustration than actual anger towards Maddie, and by the way the other girl's green eyes narrowed but there came no other snide comment, Natalie figured that her Gryffindor friend understood. Understood how Natalie fiercely wanted to believe that she didn't love him anymore, the way she had always fiercely believed that he had.

But he had never loved her, no matter what he had said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhh, Natalie and Sirius sitting in a tree! ...doing more than kissing, but those are simply semantics. This is Sirius Black we're talking about.
> 
> So the first chapters will probably be slow because I really want to put up the way they used to be before the big fight and the fall out, but the promise of more excitement is definitely there! 
> 
> Please stay with me and comment to your heart's desire, because I love feedback!


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